It’s surprising that in 1995 I was unaware of the Realist movement, but if you had asked me how I felt about the state of the art world, my opinion would have been completely in line with the Derriere-Garde. When I graduated from high school, I was shocked to hear that if I studied painting in college I would not learn the foundations of traditional art. It seemed ludicrous that this basic training was not a standard part of the art curriculum in any university art program. In addition, despite my love for many 19th-century artists, I did not know of any contemporary figurative artists primarily due to their lack of exposure in the art world. I was fortunate to find out about the New York Academy of Art — Graduate School of Figurative Art which does have a strong foundation in historical painting techniques. Many of the professors from NYAA participated in the protest in front of the Whitney in 1995. Since then, I have learned of a few ateliers that focus on traditional painting skills such as Jacob Collins’ Atelier, and I have also learned of many accomplished figurative artists of the 21st century.

New York artists who participated in the Derriere Guard Festival included the Absolute Ensemble, a group of young classically trained musicians who play everything from Mozart to Frank Zappa to Black Sabbath on classical instruments, and incorporate visual art, film, and performance elements into their presentations; 25 Realist painters who share a commitment to representational work, including Steven Assael, Martha Mayer Earlebacher, Vincent Desiderio, and Wade Schuman; several sculptors; the internationally acclaimed Ahn Trio, three young South Korean sisters trained at Juilliard; verse poets such as Dana Gioia, Tom Disch (perhaps better known as a science fiction writer), R.S. Gwynne, Charles Martin, and Molly Peacock; and New York architects Richard Franklin Sammons, Anne Fairfax, and David Mayernick.

In another symbolic challenge, de Kenessey intentionally scheduled the Derriere Guard Festival to open on the same day the Whitney Museum of American Art was opening its 1997 Biennial. This was not an opening volley in the cultural war; Realist painters, including a number of those exhibiting at The Kitchen, have been in open conflict with the Whitney for some time. Their continuing argument about art is one front in what is turning into a much broader engagement.

On September 29, 1995, painter Steven Assael stood on the steps of the Whitney before more than 200 protesters. For them, the Whitney was a Xanadu of pierced bodies, vomit displays, and other forms of avant-garde art; a symbol of what had become–in a supreme irony–Establishment cultural orthodoxy. He and his fellow painters in the Realist movement, though hardly speaking with one voice on all aesthetic matters, had put aside their differences to protest the Whitney’s prejudice against their style of art, much of which makes use of classical techniques.

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Adieu to the Avant-Garde by Kanchan Limaye